Daddy and Layla!

Layla enjoyed waking Joe up from his nap today by using him to climb onto the couch.

Layla later enjoyed tubby time with Daddy...

All clean in her new Minnie towel!

This is unrelated and dorky, I know, but every summer I love watching how much the flowers grow. I'm totally not a "flower person". Meaning I can name less types of flowers than Joe can and I have hardly ever received flowers as a gift from Joe and am totally fine with that--why spend the money on them when they just die?? Yet I'm always amazed at how quickly they become so big every summer in our yard. I am also still very pleased with our color selection this summer:-) (the pink is a hot pink--they look more pastel in the second picture than what they really are).

End of May...

Today...

Our garden has also grown a ton and we've been getting lots of good veggies out of it! I'll have to take some before and after pics of that later:-).

Week In Review

This week seemed to start off a little rough. I know it really wasn't too bad, it just felt like one of "those weeks". Tuesday Layla had a fever of 103.6. She had a fever earlier in the day too, but not quite as high. Tylenol seemed to help take it down, but not get rid of it. Layla has just seemed "off" lately--not as happy as normal. I don't know if it's teeth or what. Tuesday with Gavin all day she was not real happy. Every time Gavin would push her over she'd cry--normally she cries sometimes when he hurts her, but not everytime he pushes her over! She really didn't appreciate when he bit her (who can blame her for that though?)! So it was just a long day. Then shortly after Gavin left, the dog that we were taking care of for a few days arrived. And by "we", I mean "I". Joe was traveling for work Tuesday through Thursday--exactly the time that the dog was at our house. About 20 minutes after he arrived, he started throwing up all over the house! Like a dozen times at least!! Him and Elv had been playing and then he had a big drink so that's probably what caused it. Picking that up then made me have to throw up (from "morning" sickness--sorry if that's too much information:D)! I was also trying to make sure that Layla and both dogs stayed out of it! Gross! I work on Wednesdays, and the dog wasn't used to being at our house so it whined much of the night. I was also up during the night to give Layla Tylenol (which I'm normally up a couple time being pregnant anyway) and just with normal pregnancy sleepiness I was very tired on Wednesday! Then that night I was reading in bed, it was after 11 (which is late for me:D) when suddenly Elvis started acting weird. As a side note, I was reading a really good book called Under the Overpass, it's about a guy who chose to live homeless for five months in order to learn from it and to then share his experience and what he learned from it with others and inspire them to make a change in their life (no, not to live homeless). I then heard Elv's stomach gurgle and knew what was coming. I was able to catch it in my hands (gross, I know, but didn't want it in my bed), but as I was cleaning it (and myself) up, he made a couple more spots on our bed--my pillow and the comforter included. So then it was time for a late night sheet changing! I was annoyed for a second, then I remembered what I was reading about and thought, hey, at least I have a bed to clean up! I would highly recommend the book to anyone!
Hopefully Elv just had an upset stomach or something. He normally never throws up. Sunday he had another seizure:-(. It was his second one ever (his first was early March). He throws up lots after having a seizure, so hopefully Wednesday night's puking wasn't the after effect of another seizure that I missed! :-( So Thursday Layla seemed to be doing better, but was still crabby. We therefore missed a church play date, but she was super tired too from not sleeping great the night before so I don't think she would have been much fun anyway! Friday we had a play date with Em and Gavin and my cousin, Mandi, and her kids. Here they are at their play date...

Layla (14 mo), Caleb (18 mo), Gavin (25 mo), Natalie (3 yrs), and Remi's tail:-)

Dr.Appt

Layla went in for her weight check today and also to make sure her ear infection from awhile ago was gone and to make sure her head was growing at a normal pace (not to quickly). She did great at the appointment! Her head grew a little, but not too much and her ears were fine. And she weighed 17 lbs 15 oz!! I couldn't believe she gained that much! Maybe it helped that her appointment was right after lunch:-). In early July she was 16 lbs 1 oz (she was sick then--early June she was 16 lbs 5 oz). So thankfully she's been growing at a greater rate the past month! We'll still try to "fatten her up", but I'm glad that she gained that much. The doctor gave us some samples of Pediasure today and she didn't even want it! She just wanted her normal milk instead of the sweet strawberry milk--strange girl!

Height: 29.25" - 25-50%
Weight: 17 lbs 15 oz - just about touching the bottom of the chart
Head: 46.7 - 75% I think

A a year I was 17 lbs 1 oz and 29" and at 13 months I was 17 lbs 8 oz and 29.25" so still pretty close to how Layla is growing!

She has also just in the past couple of days pretty much given up on crawling and is only walking (except in grass).

Happy "One Year"!

So I realize that Layla is really 14 months today, but her adjusted age is 1 year! One year ago today was my due date! It's crazy to think that she should only be just turning a year when now her birthday seems like so long ago! She's grown so much in the past 14 months and we love her more every day (yep, even on bad days:D). Here are some of the basic things she's doing now. I haven't filled her baby book out since she was maybe a few months, so here's her baby book update:-). Oh, and she goes in for a weight check on Thursday so I'll know her weight then. Hopefully she's gained lots of (or at least some) weight!

She walks maybe 50% of the time and crawls the rest. She'll often walk and then start crawling once she falls down. She is starting to learn to listen better to instructions ("hand me Dolly" "give Elvis his toy"--VERY simple instructions). And the words that she says that we're pretty sure she knows what she's saying are: Mama, Dada, Bye-bye "ba-bye", ball, book "bo", baby "baybay", uh-oh, baba (her sippy), more "mo"...I think that's it. Every once in awhile I hear a "hi" when I say it to her. Of course sometimes she makes some of the same sounds while just blabbering too so it's hard to really know what she's saying:-). She likes to play with her Little Peoples sets (especially if they make lots of noises), she still enjoys her laugh and learn kitchen, she loves books, balls (although she mainly just gets excited about seeing them--she doesn't play with them real long), her brother Elvis, and little objects like her monkeys in a barrell and some little leap frogs--she enjoys putting the little things in and out of containers. She still naps twice a day--about an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon--if we're really lucky, one of those naps is an hour and a half. She has just never been a long napper, but I'll gladly take long nights over long naps (unless I could have both:D)! Her bedtime is about 7:30/8 and she wakes up at 8/8:30. I don't think she'll be ready to drop her morning nap for awhile. I know that a lot of kids drop it around a year, but she'd probably still only sleep an hour in the afternoon and by 10 she's ready for her nap so I think it'd be a major struggle to keep her up until after lunch every day! She still enjoys eating and will eat most foods, but everyonce in awhile (like this week) she doesn't want to eat all that much (I told her she has her weight check on Thursday and needs to gain weight by then, but she just doesn't listen:D). Well, I think that's about it for her update! I love watching her grow and learn and am excited to have her keep learning new things (not that I want to wish her life away or anything, but I think it will be nice when she can actually communicate with me in sentences!).

I took this video this morning b/c the kids were giggling so much with eachother for quite awhile. It's funny to watch them make each other laugh by barely doing anything!

I knew they were being too quiet this morning. This is what I found them doing...(I think Elv didn't like it b/c some of his toys are buried in that pile:D)

First Steps (sort of)

Here are a couple of short clips of Layla's "first" steps. Okay, so they aren't exactly her "first" steps since she took her very first one three weeks ago, but close:-). Don't mind my terrible video skills and low stuffy voice (at least my voice came back today!). We really need to buy a video camera so we will actually record more of what she does (and so it's better quality)!

Layla says...

So it's a little hard to read...but it says that she's going to be a big sister! I'm due February 6, so hopefully this baby comes some time around then and not TOO much earlier than that! I actually found out on Layla's birthday so I quick took her pic by this sign (which clearly she was not all about holding nicely:D) and told Joe that Layla had a pic to show him when he got home. The sign has a sad face because Layla was not real excited about having to share her mom and dad--she is over that now and really looking forward to being a big sis--haha:-). We are very excited for baby number 2 and are just praying that the pregnancy keeps going well!

Bedrest is a possibility again as well as the drugs and such that went with it, but I'll know more as I approach somewhere around 27 weeks. Right now I'm only 13 weeks. We'll be more aware this time around of what is normal, I'll get checked earlier, and hopefully we'll be able to keep this baby in as long as possible (well, until full term that is:D). We are not sure yet if we'll be finding out the gender ahead of time. Last time I didn't care either way and Joe didn't want to find out so we didn't find out. This time it's my choice:-). For awhile I was thinking I didn't want to find out--I have my little girl I always wanted, I really don't care what we have next and I really did like the surprise at the end--but it would be nice for planning things ahead of time. So we'll see! So far this pregnancy is flying by. I feel awful most of the time--which I think I really did forget just how bad it was last time--but at least the weeks go pretty quick and hopefully in the next month or two (or sooner) I start feeling better! Last time I think I stopped throwing up around 20ish weeks, so hopefully it's not any longer than that this time. Sorry if that sounds like I'm really down about it, it just isn't super fun especially since this week I've been sick with a cold and cough on top of it. It is easier though being at home sick (6/7 days) this time rather than at work every day!! I really don't hate being pregnant--I just don't like the way it makes me feel, but I'm excited for the little life that is growing in me! Well, that's all for now, just wanted to update about our news!

New Salon and Swinging

Last week I found this cute little beauty salon at a garage sale and couldn't resist:-). We really don't have room for more "big" toys, but we will once our basement is finished. Until then it's crowding and cluttering up our upstairs:-). Layla loves it, so it's worth it:-). I love finding a garage sale that has toys in good shape and that actually have all the correct pieces with it--that is what sold me on this!

Layla is somewhat vain, and still enjoys looking at herself:-).

As I've said before, she loves climbing on things and has no fear! (it was before bed, so she didn't have her pj bottoms on yet:D)

Gavin came over Monday for a little bit so his Mommy could go get a hair cut, so him and Layla thought they'd play at their salon:-). (they can see each other through the thing, that's why they're smiling)

On Tuesday, Gavin and her played with it again (in case you're wondering about the clothing change:D). Gavin enjoyed crawling under it (I moved the chair downstairs as they wouldn't stop fighting over it).

Layla thought that looked like a good idea and thought she'd copy her cousin's idea...

This is from last weekend that I forgot to post. Gavin and Layla had fun swinging with Grandpa on their swing set.

And Layla had fun trying to follow Gavin around (but that doesn't work so well since she can't get to all the fun places he can!).